Stay on target

Black Panther is breaking records before it’s even out. It’s amazing trailers and phenomenal cast helped it sell the most presale tickets for any other superhero movie. That’s a big deal. People are excited about this movie, and it sounds like that’s for good reason. Its premiere earlier this week was met with enthusiastic reviews. From the sounds of things, Black Panther might actually be as good as it looks. Not everyone is so happy about that, though. A Facebook group popped up on Thursday calling for people to help bring down the movie’s audience review score on Rotten Tomatoes. It’s run by the same person who took credit for Star Wars: The Last Jedi’s audience score, in case you needed any indication of what kind of person would lead a campaign to trash a movie they haven’t even seen yet.

As of Friday, the Facebook group has been banned after it was reported for harassment, according to Marvel Studios News. Facebook investigated the page and it was soon taken down. Sometimes good news happens on the internet. Now, the group will likely pop back up in some form or another. There will probably be some kind of effort to lower Black Panther’s audience score, no matter how good the movie is. Its impact will likely be somewhat lessened thanks to this ban though. So while there are still bitter bad fans out there who are angry that people enjoy a movie, we can all greet this news with a satisfying Nelson Muntz-style “Ha Ha!”

Not that it matters much since they’re gone, but their stated reason for trying to tank Black Panther’s audience score was they thought Disney was pressuring critics to give DC movies bad reviews. Because that’s totally a thing that happens. It can’t possibly be that Justice League and Batman v. Superman were just… bad. I’m sure they have an explanation for why Wonder Woman got rave reviews, but I don’t care. It is funny that the target of their ire is Black Panther, though. If the critical response to Justice League is what got them so mad online in the first place, May’s Avengers: Infinity War would make much more sense as a target. As a big superhero team-up movie, it’s a much closer analog to Justice League. I wonder if there’s some other reason Black Panther is making them so angry. I wonder what it could be…

On a surely unrelated note, Inversespoke to the leader of the now-defunct Facebook group, who told them, “minorities… should stay that way.” So yeah, real stand up guys we’re dealing with here. Eh, whatever. They got banned. Ha Ha!

In other Marvel news, the world got a minor scare yesterday when Stan Lee was taken to the hospital last night with an irregular heartbeat and shortness of breath, KABCreports. Fortunately, Lee is now back at home and reportedly feeling great. He said he’s glad he spent the night in the hospital. “It did me a lot of good,” Lee said. “It probably did my fans a lot of good. It kept me off their backs for the evening. But I’m feeling good now and I can’t wait to get in there and tangle with all the competition.” Now that’s a Stan Lee response to a health scare if we’ve ever heard one.

Stan Lee, creator of almost all of your favorite Marvel characters, is 95 years old, and evidently still going strong. He’s appeared in every movie based on a Marvel property since the first X-Men. Fans have come to look forward to his cameos almost as much as the movies themselves. Health concerns have previously forced Lee to reduce his travel schedule and cancel appearances at comics conventions, but he hopes to resume traveling soon. “It’s nice to know that somewhere in the world there are still people who care about what I say or do,” he said.

Feeling better though he is, last night’s health scare is a reminder that Lee isn’t going to be around forever. He’s been on this Earth for almost a century, and we will eventually have to face a world without him in it. For now, we’re glad he’s feeling better, and we’re grateful for the time (and Marvel movie cameos) we have left.

Hugh Jackman in Logan (Photo Credit: James Mangold/ 20th Century Fox)

Lee’s cameos aren’t the only staple of Marvel movies fans have come to look forward to. Ever since 2008’s Iron Man, the studio has largely built out its universe through its post-credits scenes. While the main stories of each film are largely standalone, these scenes are what connect the films together. Some of them tease the next movie in the franchise. Others, like Thanos’ introduction in the credits scene of The Avengers, set up a villain and arc that will carry through multiple Marvel movies to come. They’re absolutely a critical part of the Marvel Cinematic Universe’s success. Not everyone is a fan, though.

James Mangold, who directed last year’s excellent Logan, spoke out against the practice during the Writers Guild of America Beyond Words Panel in Los Angeles, CinemaBlendreports. Not only is he not a fan of including post-credits scenes, he says they’re “embarrassing.”

“The idea of making a movie that would fucking embarrass me, that’s part of the anesthetizing of this country or the world,” he said about the kinds of films he wouldn’t want to make. “That’s further confirming what they already know and tying in with other fucking products and selling them the next movie while you’re making this movie, and kind of all that shit that I find really fucking embarrassing.”

Mangold went on to say that the fact that audiences are asking for these scenes is an indictment of the movies themselves. It’s a sign, he says, that the movie itself didn’t do its job. And that it’s ridiculous to try to sell people on the next movie before they’re even done with the current one. Which sounds a lot like Marvel’s entire business model.

“Like, that audiences are actually asking for scenes in end credits when those scenes were first developed for movies that suck, so they put something extra at the end to pick up the scores when the movie couldn’t end right on its own fucking feet,” Mangold said. “Now we’ve actually gotten audiences addicted to a fucking bonus in the credits. It’s fucking embarrassing. It means you couldn’t land your fucking movie is what it means. Even if you got 100,000 Twitter addicts who are gambling on what fucking scene is going to happen after the fucking credits it’s still cheating.”

So if Mangold directs any more X-Men movies, don’t expect any extras after the credits. His hatred for them is a little extreme, but nobody will deny the man knows what he’s talking about when it comes to making movies. Logan is the only superhero movie to be nominated for an Academy Award for writing. I disagree that Marvel (or any superhero franchise) should do away with post-credits scenes entirely, but maybe not every movie needs to end with one.

But let’s end on a happier note, with Mark Ruffalo just being generally awesome. The Hulk actor posted a photo to Twitter from his last day on set of Avengers: Infinity War. Still, in full motion capture gear, he looks exactly like you’d expect someone to look when they’re leaving behind the highest-paying job they’ve ever had. The photo itself is… just perfection.

The idea of The Hulk carrying a hobo bindle is just about the funniest thing in the world. You can almost hear the sad piano music from the 1978 series as you look at that photo. Of all the Marvel actors whose contracts are ending after Avengers 4, I think we’re going to miss Ruffalo the most.